


Feeding Strays (and the Soul)

by bookworm213



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky Barnes in Bucharest, Bucky and dogs, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Pre-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Puppies, Street food, acts of kindness towards animals, based off of a video I saw, brief depictions of animal starvation, kabobs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 18:05:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9283715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookworm213/pseuds/bookworm213
Summary: Drabble based off of a video I saw. Bucky feeds a stray dog on the streets of Bucharest. But it turns out the food isn't for her.





	

Bucky brings the kabob (a spicy meat concoction from the booth down the road), to his mouth and stops just short of biting down.

The dog is staring at him from an overturned cart near the side of the road. She’s small with a long, narrow snout and tan fur. She’s lean, her ribs sticking out sharply from her abdomen. She hunches down next to the cart and watches him with sad, hungry eyes. She reminds him of the dogs in Brooklyn, dogs who where abandoned or put out on the streets because it was the Depression and people had to scrape by to feed themselves, much less their animals.

Bucharest doesn’t always remind him of Brooklyn. Lately, the memories that have been gnawing at his brain force him to recognize all the little differences in every building, every street. Sometimes he welcomes it, sometimes he wishes they wouldn’t. 

The dog is still looking at him, her head drooping and her tail between her legs. People rush by on the busy street, and most don’t even spare her a second glance. She’s like the overturned cart next to her, a discarded item by the side of the road. Not even worthy of a glance.

And he almost wants to laugh, because here he is, the Winter Soldier, the most feared assassin of the last 70 years, with over two dozen confirmed kills, feeling sorry for a fucking dog. 

He still has the kabob in his hand, the meat somewhat cooled in the ten minutes it’s been off the grill. He looks at it, then back at the dog. Well, he was probably going to end up getting another anyway. And it looked like the dog needed it way more than he did.

The dog tenses when he approaches it, like she’s expecting a strike or to be shooed away. The sight makes an ember of anger begin to burn in his heart, and he tries not to think about what this dog must have gone though in order to expect brutal treatment from people. But when she sees the kabob in his hand, she perks up, her tail giving a soft and unsure wag. Gently, using the flesh hand instead of the metal one, he lowers the stick down so she can grip it with her teeth. 

After a moment of hesitation, her mouth latches onto the stick. She’s less afraid now, her tail wagging and beating the air around it with a steady stream of thumps. Before he can move, the dog has the kabob in her mouth and has disappeared behind a corner. 

He frowns. He’d expected the dog to chow down as soon as she had the food in her mouth. There didn’t seem to be any other dogs in the area to fight her for the food. So why the hurry?

It doesn’t take long to locate her. The kabob is dripping a sticky sauce that leaves a pretty noticeable trail. When he turns a corner and spots her, his mouth drops open in surprise. Well, three surprises.

Because three pups bound out toward their mother from behind a pile of wood. The mother is suddenly surrounded by shrill yelps and floppy ears as the pups attempt to climb up her legs. But attention soon shifts to the kabob as she drops in on the ground by her feet. The pups waste no time pouncing on it, little tails wagging uncontrollably as they devour it. Meanwhile the mother moves away and lies down with her head on her paws to watch her pups eat.

Bucky’s heart twists. The three pups look remarkably well-fed, next to their mother who’s ribs can be easily seen and counted. 

The mother catches sight of him. Recognizing him as the man who gave her the kabob, her tail starts to wag as she gets up and trots over to him. He instinctively crouches down and she licks at his right hand. By now the pups have finished the kabob, and they bound over to where their mother is. Before Bucky can react, he’s surrounded by four sets of wagging tails, paws trying to climb up his legs, and tongues trying to lick his face. 

He goes back to the stand and buys six more kabobs.


End file.
